Sorry that it's been a week since any post but not much exciting has happened until my dad arrived Saturday evening. Unfortunately his flight was almost 6 hours late but we were able to get out into town for dinner for his first night in, even if we couldn't do anything else. On Sunday morning we went to Notre Dame for mass at 8am. It was beautiful, with limited numbers of people and the singing and organ playing was the best part by far.
After that we went to see my cousins in Chatou and spent a little time with them so my dad could visit and have lunch. Then we caught a train to Rennes (to the west of Paris). It's about 2hr15m to get there. From there we rented a car and drove the 1hr30m to Mont Saint-Michel on the historic/scenic route, passing lots of cute villages, farm houses and fields on the way. It was exciting to finally get in view of the island and get closer and closer to it. (You have to park off the island and take a shuttle in. The shuttle drops you just shy of the island, on the connecting causeway, so you can walk up and take pictures.) We lucked out with the weather, it was gorgeous, but it was pretty chilly and the wind was very strong. It WAS around 7:30pm when we arrived, though we are pretty far north so it feels later since the sun stays out longer, with sunset occurring just after 10pm.
We checked into our hotel, La Mere Poulard, and then went exploring around the little island town. It was heavily fortified from the Roman days and withstood all attacks on it throughout the Hundred Years War. The abbey on the top of the island was closed by the time we arrived but we enjoyed a nice dinner overlooking the bay (one of their famous omelettes as a starter and a slice of roast lamb for me). It is pretty cool to see all the fortifications, and the streets and pathways keep spiraling upwards toward the abbey, with smaller, more hidden stairways through the middle, cutting down to the different levels of the town. I'm pretty sure we hiked every part of that island. The last photos in this stretch are of the kitchen of our hotel/restaurant, which made MSM famous for its omelettes. They are cooked in special copper bowls over an open fire. It's pretty cool.
The next morning we had breakfast then hiked up to the abbey when it opened at 9. It was nice to get ahead of a lot of the tourists. Different parts of the abbey and island town were built in different periods, starting in the 400s AD with the first monastic establishment in the 8th century. It gave its support to William the Conqueror in 1067 and then withstood repeated assaults from the English during the Hundred Years War in the 1400s. It became a prison for high-profile prisoners during the French Revolution but that was closed in 1863 and it was soon declared a historic monument. In 1979 it was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. So there's your very brief history and now here are a whole bunch of pictures.
After we toured the abbey and wandered through town a bit more, we made our way back to the town on the mainland where we had parked the car. There were a lot of bicycle statues and cow statues. The Tour de France had just started the day before, Saturday July 2nd, so the bicycles made sense, but we weren't quite sure what to the make of the cows. They were cool though.
We drove leisurely back through the countryside to Rennes and then returned to Paris by train. After dropping our things off at the hotel we made our way westward along Blvd Saint Germain and I showed my dad the Court de Rohan (really old Paris that I visited early on, on my library tour day). And then we ate at Les Deux Magots, a recommendation by my Uncle Kim. People who frequented this restaurant included Picasso, Sartre and Hemingway. It's right across from the Eglise Saint Germain des Pres. It was a beautiful night and the food was delicious, then we walked back to the hotel. The rest of this week (Tu-Fri) I have to work. My final 4 days!!! So my dad will do the tourist thing while I work, then I can join him and explore a little more of Paris. Good night for now!
After that we went to see my cousins in Chatou and spent a little time with them so my dad could visit and have lunch. Then we caught a train to Rennes (to the west of Paris). It's about 2hr15m to get there. From there we rented a car and drove the 1hr30m to Mont Saint-Michel on the historic/scenic route, passing lots of cute villages, farm houses and fields on the way. It was exciting to finally get in view of the island and get closer and closer to it. (You have to park off the island and take a shuttle in. The shuttle drops you just shy of the island, on the connecting causeway, so you can walk up and take pictures.) We lucked out with the weather, it was gorgeous, but it was pretty chilly and the wind was very strong. It WAS around 7:30pm when we arrived, though we are pretty far north so it feels later since the sun stays out longer, with sunset occurring just after 10pm.
We checked into our hotel, La Mere Poulard, and then went exploring around the little island town. It was heavily fortified from the Roman days and withstood all attacks on it throughout the Hundred Years War. The abbey on the top of the island was closed by the time we arrived but we enjoyed a nice dinner overlooking the bay (one of their famous omelettes as a starter and a slice of roast lamb for me). It is pretty cool to see all the fortifications, and the streets and pathways keep spiraling upwards toward the abbey, with smaller, more hidden stairways through the middle, cutting down to the different levels of the town. I'm pretty sure we hiked every part of that island. The last photos in this stretch are of the kitchen of our hotel/restaurant, which made MSM famous for its omelettes. They are cooked in special copper bowls over an open fire. It's pretty cool.
The next morning we had breakfast then hiked up to the abbey when it opened at 9. It was nice to get ahead of a lot of the tourists. Different parts of the abbey and island town were built in different periods, starting in the 400s AD with the first monastic establishment in the 8th century. It gave its support to William the Conqueror in 1067 and then withstood repeated assaults from the English during the Hundred Years War in the 1400s. It became a prison for high-profile prisoners during the French Revolution but that was closed in 1863 and it was soon declared a historic monument. In 1979 it was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. So there's your very brief history and now here are a whole bunch of pictures.
After we toured the abbey and wandered through town a bit more, we made our way back to the town on the mainland where we had parked the car. There were a lot of bicycle statues and cow statues. The Tour de France had just started the day before, Saturday July 2nd, so the bicycles made sense, but we weren't quite sure what to the make of the cows. They were cool though.
We drove leisurely back through the countryside to Rennes and then returned to Paris by train. After dropping our things off at the hotel we made our way westward along Blvd Saint Germain and I showed my dad the Court de Rohan (really old Paris that I visited early on, on my library tour day). And then we ate at Les Deux Magots, a recommendation by my Uncle Kim. People who frequented this restaurant included Picasso, Sartre and Hemingway. It's right across from the Eglise Saint Germain des Pres. It was a beautiful night and the food was delicious, then we walked back to the hotel. The rest of this week (Tu-Fri) I have to work. My final 4 days!!! So my dad will do the tourist thing while I work, then I can join him and explore a little more of Paris. Good night for now!
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